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Responsible communication represents a new marketing tool for companies. The objective is to project a social and environmental conscience for the company, thus informing and attracting consumer-citizens. Here, it is a question of the company’s social responsibility.
What is responsible communication?
Corporate responsible communication consists of communicating through environmental, social and economic channels to reach company objectives . The goal is to attract consumers who are increasingly more demanding in regards to environmental aspects (amongst other things), and to show the company’s engagement towards these fundamental challenges.
Ethical marketing?
The usual goal of corporate communication is exclusively for economic benefits; regardless of the means used and the ethics involved. The company delivers its marketing messages to constantly develop and acquire new targets. With the era of responsible communication at the door, marketing codes have been jostled and changed in line with society and its latest requirements. Customers expect a genuine commitment from their companies and their favourite brands: an accumulation of awareness, efforts and sacrifices realised in times of crisis and ecological preoccupations.
Responsible communication informs and wins loyalty
Companies adopt responsible communication for the purpose of informing customers and reaching new ones . Consumers consider ecological concerns as more and more important, a fact that companies have fully understood. Their objective is therefore to embrace an ecological stance, and valorise this commitment in their communication. A consumer is more liable to show confidence in a company with a conscience, than a company with a lesser engagement.
Customer loyalty assumes an important place for a company with a committed communication. The rewards of this type of marketing are to be found in the long-term, the opposite of traditional marketing, where companies expect immediate economic results. In adopting responsible communication, companies look to the future and its impact in the coming years. In effect, it is very likely that consumer expectations will be very much to the fore in coming years, and a company that engages itself today, will see its efforts recompensed in the long-term.
Responsible communication versus “Greenwashing”
Be careful not to fall into the trap of “Greenwashing” , a marketing method which employs an exaggerated ecological and social communication argument. This involves an excess of promises and commitments that do not ring true for the consumer, and which can produce the opposite effect of that hoped for. Companies must therefore position themselves precisely, using an objective and clear standpoint. It is completely unnecessary for a company to make false promises and to exaggerate its position ; customers are not easily fooled. If a company’s dishonesty is revealed, customer confidence risks to quickly evaporate, and they might voluntarily turn to another more reliable company.
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